A Bit About Close Buy Catalog 2011

Almost done with Close Buy Catalog orders for 2011!   I was very pleased with my sales with the catalog.  I prepared all summer long.  Making and storing soaps for the catalog and just not knowing how many orders would come in! Did you notice that Mermaids Garden and Sea Shore Scrub soaps were not available at market?  I was hoarding them!  Sorry about that!  (They were for sale via special request and on-line).  

I prepared and had some packaging on hand, but still had no idea how many soap 2 packs or laundry detergent would sell.  37 schools participated and that is a huge jump over the 3 schools from last year.  Once the orders were in, I had a little over 3 weeks to pull it all together.  I had to order more packaging, ribbon, bags and labels, but I expected to do this.  I didn't want to order more than I needed.  Putting the orders together in my new soap studio made a world of difference.  I have soo much more work space!  This allowed me to work on the project in stages.  Pull all the soaps, label all the soaps, assemble all the boxes, tie all the ribbons etc. and I could walk away at the end of the day and leave the project undisturbed for tomorrow. 

All the orders are put into one box per school.   Hannafords and Shaws have been great in giving me used boxes to pack my orders in and plain brown shopping bags to separate the different skus' inside each box.  Using re-purposed cardboard boxes is highly encouraged by Close Buy Catalog.  While we all did create alot of packaging, we are trying out best to keep it minimal, while keeping the whole thing organized.  Cute labels for the boxes were created by Close Buy Catalog and distributed to all the vendors.  Now all these mis-matched, re-purposed boxes will looks similar, with their bright and cheery red labels.

I deliver my boxes of soap and detergents to the Close Buy Catalog warehouse on Monday.  From there the boxes will be sorted by school and sent to their various towns across the state.  Teacher and Parent volunteerers then set up and pick the children's orders for distributing!  Quite a large undertaking!  I can't fit all the boxes in my car for delivery day, so a great friend has been enlisted to help me.  I will be sure to take pictures on delivery day. 

What a great experience and opportunity I had working with Close Buy Catalog!  I hope to be part of the catalog in 2012.